The old skid lid I have used for the past 10 years has scratches that I have considered covering with stickers, but can't seem to do it. They tell a story of a ride I will always remember. The occasion was my 41st Birthday, I was going through a second divorce, and decided to spend my day riding. When I left home it was a beautiful sunny day with not a cloud in the sky and a nice 70 degrees. My old Honda felt good between my knees as we rolled along these old country roads with their curves and potholes and before long I had hit my zone and forgot everything but the road. A couple hours into my ride I ran across some old friends at a gas station and asked where they were off to,"Gatlinburg to the Harley shop" my friend replied "wanna go?" Well my friends I have a hard time passing up a good fast ride down I75, especially when it's to somewhere I may find new toys I can't live without, so off we went. Gatlinburg was busy as usual, traffic was bumper to bumper, like it always is in the summer and i could not have been happier. As I prowled through all the stuff the Harley store had to offer, I see this awesome set of mirrors that would look right at home on my bike, bought them and immediately went outside to put them on. As I finished working I look up at the sky to see my beautiful sunny day has turned into fat blotchy clouds one knows are just full of rain. As any REAL biker will tell you, Don't let rain stop you, wear wet gear! So whether I am a real biker or not, I start putting on my rain gear just as the guys step out from the store and see what's happening. 10 minutes later we are all geared up and headed back up the interstate when the sky opened up into what it must have looked like when Noah had the flood. (If animals had started moving in pairs I woulda probably peed myself) Seeing the road had became a distant memory and I was happy I was still seeing the guy in front of me's taillights, Stopping? there was no stopping, I75 cage drivers move fast and will giggle as they take you out. Which left us with option 1 keep riding. The old timers in Ky./Tenn. like to say "If you don't like the weather, wait 10 minutes" which proved to be true and we rode back into a sunny day somewhere in Knoxville. Within a few minutes I was back in my zone and we had a nice ride back to Corbin.As we said our goodbyes and went our seperate ways I couldn't wait to get back in the curves and enjoy my ride home to dinner. I should explain that the road from corbin to my house is utterly devoid of anything resembling a gas station or anything else for that matter but houses,if you get in trouble you are in trouble till help comes along. So here I am riding along when the day goes totally black and hail the size of walnuts starts pounding me and I hear craaaaaack as my left mirror I just paid a fortune for breaks all over the road. Know what? I could not have cared less!! why? I was taking the beating of my life with nowhere to take shelter, I did however lay across the gas tank with my skid lid pointed up as best I could hoping it and my leather would absorb some of the impact. I must have been a sight splayed all across my bike with my head up as if to offer sacrifice,and of course thats the exact time someone came along. A neighbor of mine who had been out selling his cows,pulls alongside me on the edge of the road and says get in here old buddy. I am a MAN... Abandon ship?? Bet your butt I did, but not before taking off my coat and covering the tank. So now I have a skid lid with a buttload of pings in it, the memory of what it feels like to be brutalized by hail and a neighbor who to this day believes I ain't right in the head.